Freelance Writing Questions: How To Say Goodbye

March 25, 2008

As a freelance writer, you sometimes find yourself with a bad client relationship. It’s not that the client is bad; it’s just that you just can’t reach an understanding. You know that things are going wrong because:

  • you thought you understood the brief but the client doesn’t like what you have written

  • you didn’t understand the brief, but your requests for clarification leave you none the wiser

  • the brief was clear but your client wanted something that wasn’t in the brief.

In any of these situations, you find yourself with work where you have to do so many revisions that it just isn’t worth it, or with a client who rejects the work you have spent so much time on and flatly refuses to pay. So, what do you do?

Clients Have Rights …

Let me say that I think clients are entitled to ask for revisions, within reason. If they give a clear brief and I make a mistake, I am happy to revise it. If I spot a typo, I am happy to correct it. Even if the brief isn’t quite clear and revisions are needed, I am happy to do them. However, when the list of revisions gets longer and longer and the client is impossible to please, you know that you’re going to lose money.

… But So Do Writers

Sometimes you just have to fire the client. This isn’t something that I do lightly. I always try to deliver what the client wants. The clients I write for are generally happy, but occasionally there’s one who isn’t. Today I said goodbye to one of those.

This was a job that I subbed out, with the client’s agreement, as she wanted an expert in a particular topic. The client finds it difficult to give a clear brief. The first time I worked for her she rejected the article, which ticked all the boxes on the brief. I did a revision, but told her I would have to charge more for future commissions because of the extra work her articles needed.

She disappeared for a while, resurfaced and gave us a new job. These were a couple of articles which she accepted and paid for. Then a few days ago, she brought a new job to me. I got the brief, tried to piece together what she wanted and got the writer to do the article. Again, it ticked all the boxes, but the client obviously wanted something that wasn’t in the brief, because she complained again.

At this point I had to decide whether it was worth persisting with this relationship. I communicate clearly and am pretty savvy with client briefs. All of a sudden I had a flash forward to dozens of articles which were more trouble than they were worth. I consulted with the writer, who felt as I did. It was time to say goodbye.

Taking Action

I then refunded the advance that the client had paid by Paypal and wrote her a short, but courteous note, which went something like this:

Dear Client

I really feel that I have supplied you with a well written article that covers the points in your brief. I realise that we seem to have a communication difficulty. Obviously my understanding of the brief does not match your requirements. Rather than go round in circles and nit pick on every single point, I have refunded the money you paid me as we seem to be on completely different wavelengths. I wish you success with your venture.

I am still waiting for her reply. In the end I realised that this was one client relationship that wasn’t worth pursuing. Not only was it taking more time than the job was worth, but it was potentially jeopardising my relationship with one of my colleagues. Finally, in the long run, it wouldn’t do me any good to have an unhappy client, whether it was my fault or hers.